I built a ReAmiga 1200 late last year using a black PCB. Once finished with that I knew I wanted a backup A1200. I usually buy systems in pairs, one for usage and one for backup or testing purposes and I always have a purpose for stuff I get since I do not believe in hoarding up stuff for hoarding purposes only. The first ReAmiga 1200 I built had a black PCB and is mounted in a black A1200.net case so I decided to go for another color. The only color I found, since I did not want to order PCBs myself, was white so thats what I got.

As with the last ReAmiga 1200 PCB I built this build went really smooth. I used components from a broken A1200 PCB that I desoldered with an hot air rework station. I also got connectors from that donor board. Other stuff like the PCMCIA connector and the odd chip here and there was ordered from AliExpress, Sordan and from ebay.de. Off course the majority of passives and some chips came from Mouser. This time I used the same color for all LEDs for all LEDs -green- unlike my last one that looks like a christmas tree when powered on. I sort of wish I ran all red LEDs, perhaps if I build a third one.

I was thinking of keeping this PCB in storage or getting a white A1200.net case but then I remembered that I had a genuine Amiga 1200 case in storage. Most A1200 cases are in bad shape these days but this one was actually in relatively fine shape. Notice the Centurion tech backplate that I used instead of the metal shield. It looks professional but I think it fit the replica cases better.

As a bonus, that case had all the parts to make it a full A1200. The floppy drive, cables, LED lights for HDD, floppy and power and the keyboard.

And believe it or not, the threads of the case was not stripped or cracked, the keyboard was relatively white too and had not gone too yellow over the years. Testing the system (there is no HDD inside it) it works fine and I actually did have a plan for this system, sometimes in the future when the scandoubler arrives for the PiStorm32 I will try PiStorm32 on it. But as it stands right now its going in storage.

I just finished building my black Amiga 1200 that is based on a ReAmiga 1200 motherboard and a TF1260 turbo card and I am very happy with it!

System specifications:

• ReAmiga A1200 v1.5 (black PCB)
• TerribleFire 1260 (black PCB)
• Indivision AGA MK3
• Micronik 1.76MB floppy drive
• Hard keyboard membrane
• 4GB compact flash card
• A1200.net replacement case, black
• A1200.net replacement keycaps, black
• Custom metal backplate

Comments on the build

Terrible Fire 1260

I like to run either 030 or 060, preferably 060, in my Amigas. Previously I had an Apollo 1260 in my old A1200 so I replaced it with a TF1260 that I built. The Terrible Fire1260 supports easier overclocking than the Apollo 1260 did and also has more memory, 128 MB.

Indivision AGA MK3

A scandoubler is a must have in the Amiga IMHO and the Indivision is a great option for that since it hooks up to HDMI directly. I got the first version years ago but sold it. Both versions has been proven to be reliable and good solutions, but price for it has went up a lot in 15 years.

Case and keyboard

The case and keys came from a1200.net. I got a hard keyboard membrane which worked great after the I had wiped the rubber key bottoms on a paper to make them conductive again. I also got a metal backplate from CenturionTech, it is a nice replacement for the ugly metal bottom shield, makes the whole system professional and fresh.

Other

I had an old MicroniK HD floppy drive and used that in the build. No idea where I got it from and I will probably never use it, but an A1200 does not look right without a floppy. I dont use old ball mouses anymore, so I got a MouSTer DB9 to USB adapter so I can use a wireless mouse.

Building the ReAmiga 1200

I built the ReAmiga A1200 from an empty motherboard PCB myself. I used parts from a broken Amiga 1200 motherboard. Halfway in the build I decided to build a second one as a backup so I got a white motherboard and built them both back to back. Both motherboards are tested and fully working. They are equiped with full LEDs. The white one has all green LEDs while the black one reminds of a christmas tree when its powered on.

The build was farily simple, as with most replicas close to original C= designs the amount of passives that has to be soldered is a lot, although not as insane as an A4000D/T.

I decided to build my motherboards without any sockets. There are two primary reasons for this, I can not professionally clean the motherboard, and cleaning flux from sockets is very difficult for me without an ultrasonic bath. The motherboard acts as a heatsink and it is more efficient if the chips are soldered to the motherboard IMHO. For example, Alice gets very hot (as does Lisa). Off course it is also more reliable, I have yet to find a socket that is not reliable though.

Summary

If I had to chose to keep just one Amiga it would be difficult not to chose this A1200, it is fast thanks to having an 060 CPU. HDMI output is a nice luxury and with high resolution monitor drivers running at 1024×768 (in 8 colors) it almost feels like you had an RTG graphics card in it when you are in Workbench.